Genuine Faith

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Matt 15:8

There's an excellent illustration that demonstrates the difference between intellectual faith and genuine faith. In the late 1890's, a famous tightrope walker strung a wire across Niagara Falls. As thousands of people watched, he inched his way along the wire from one side of the falls to the other.

When he got to the other side, the crowd cheered wildly. Finally, the tightrope walker was able to quiet the crowd and shouted to them, 'Do you believe in me?'.  The crowd shouted back, 'We believe! We believe!'.

Again he quieted the crowd and shouted to them, 'I'm going back across the falls on the tightrope.  But this time I'm going to do it with a wheelbarrow, balancing the front wheel on the tightrope.  Do you believe I can do it?'. The crowd yelled back, 'We believe! We believe!'

There was a reporter there covering the story.  The  tightrope walker turned to him and asked the same question, "Do you believe in me?  Do you believe I can do it?"  The reporter responded, "Yes.  I believe in you.  I believe you can do it."

The tightrope walker responded, "Great.  Get in the wheelbarrow!"

Intellectual faith says, "I believe"  Genuine faith will "get in the wheelbarrow".

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